Analysis of characteristics of workers with occupational benzene poisoning in Jiangsu province, 2006-2018

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of workers with occupational benzene poisoning in Jiangsu Province during 2006-2018, find out the susceptible population of occupational benzene poisoning and provide some evidence for establishing some exposure standards for workers. Methods: Questionnaire is the tool that we adopt to collect basic information of workers. Benzene detector is applied to detect the concentration of benzene in the working environments. Statistical description and analysis was conducted to analyze the prevalence of occupational benzene poisoning in Jiangsu Province during 2006-2018. Results: The number of cases of occupational benzene poisoning in these years was 145, and 28 of them were diagnosed with benzene induced leukemia; the patients mainly worked in manufacturing industry (89.7%); most of cases were distributed in small factories (43.4%) and private companies (46.2%). Male workers took a major part in the cases of acute benzene poisoning(80%)while female workers had a higher proportion of the chronic benzene poisoning (65%). Most cases were distributed in the 30-49 age group (80%). There was no evident differences among these seniority groups, most of the cases were in the working age of 1-19 years old (82.9%); concentration of benzene of chronic benzene poisoning workers were mostly under 0.6mg/m³ (40%). Conclusions: The departments of occupational disease prevention should heighten the benzene surveillance of small-scale private companies in manufacturing industry, regular physical examination and health education should be conducted in the workers of low concentration of benzene exposure, safety protection measures should be taken to reduce the incidence of occupational poisoning. Keywords: occupational disease; occupational benzene poisoning; benzene induced leukemia